Archive for November, 2008

It’s almost Christmas time and we want to send you a Christmas card! So if you’d like your very own, personalized, hand written Christmas card from the ‘ole J&K, send us an email to jillandkate@gmail.com & put “Christmas Card” in the subject. Just send us your address by next Wednesday, 12/3/08 and we’ll send you a little Christmas lovin’ in your mailbox….because let’s face it…it’s fun to get something other than bills in your mailbox!

Oh and an early Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating! Bring on the Tofurkey!!

So, I’ve decided that I like quick fixes. I mean, who doesn’t. When I want pizza–I can call, order, have my pizza to my front door in 30 minutes. I don’t even have to leave the comfort of my comfy pants & couch. If I want information I just open my nifty computer and type into my handy google bar what I’m looking for. I don’t even have to open a separate google page–it’s already at my fingertips when I open my web browser. And I can find any piece of information I’m looking for. Who that funny actor is that I saw in a preview, how many days until the Spring solstice, who wrote that great song I just heard on Grey’s Anatomy, etc. Anything I want on the information super highway I can have in SECONDS, people. Seconds. I’ll continue my point further…if I want to rent a movie, all I have to do is sit and scan through thousands of titles (again on my computer), click it, and then bam…it’s in my mailbox the next day. But let’s say I am really needing instant gratification…I can just go to a site and download a movie right to my computer. NO waiting. No build-up. Nada. It’s all at my fingertips.

So why all my ranting? Well I’ve decided that the society that I find myself in…that being “The Quick Fix Club” is toxic for my soul. Here’s why….

Because when I have something in my life that needs a “quick fix” and that “quick fix” (whatever it might be) is unavailable to me, it drives me INSANE. I spend all of this heart and soul energy on how I can get “it” faster. When really…some things are a slow process. Some things are not meant to be a quick fix at all. Yet I am so desperate because I’ve been trained this way and it’s hard for me to understand that most things are better with delayed gratification. Here are some of the things in life that are hard for me with instant satisfaction vs. delayed gratification.

a. When I wake up one morning and decide I’d like to have Kate Beckinsale’s body instead of mine…I get super motivated, go to the gym EVERY day for a week and am absolutely PISSED that by day 7 my abs resemble the same abs that I started with on day number 1.

b. When I meet a guy. I have had the tendency in the past (which I have TOTALLY now outgrown) to want to rush things. Why, oh, why would you want to do that? It’s because I see people in these wonderful relationships and am envious. So being a quick fixer, suddenly after bumping into strange, cute boy at the grocery store I see us walking down the aisle hand in hand…and I don’t mean the frozen food aisle. Get it?

c. My guitar playing skills. I am a decent guitar player. But I could certainly be better. I want to be better. I watch Jill play the guitar and I’m like wow…she can just play so well. So I compare…I have been playing guitar for 5 years….Jill has been playing the guitar for 15 years. That’s a whole extra 10 years of practicing, playing, learning…yet I still somehow think that after practicing really hard for two days that my skills are going to magically re-invent themselves.

It’s obvious why these are some of the things that I combat in my need for quick fixes. Every 5 seconds on TV, I’m bombarded with commercials promising the loss of 50 million pounds with only the swallow of a tiny pill, or Eharmony & Match.com reaching out to us lonely unattached folk–selling that there is that special someone that is waiting for you and is just ONE click away.

So–that’s my deal folks. I feel like I’ve been doing some soul searching and that’s what I’ve come up with. I think some of best things in life are things that you have to work long and hard for…not everything, but most things. That’s what I’m going to be working on. Trying to gain perspective. Change, even very small change, is still change and is part of a greater process. Growth, even when it’s very small, is still growth. I’m trying to slow down, take it all in and see life in real-life-even-though-it’s-hard-cause-I-want-it-all-RIGHT-NOW-motion. I know we’ve heard it all before but it’s the journey not the destination.

So, we took a little road trip to celebrate the new EP…you know, “Finding My Own Way”…we decided to find our own way up to the Chicago area for a couple days to bring in November right.

Here is a little synopsis of our trip.

After about an hour of driving, we made it to Kentucky. Yeah! Kentucky!

So, after that very exciting event, we continued on our way and what do you know? We passed a “Google-Car.” Again, a very thrilling encounter.

Well, no road trip is complete without a large Sonic drink (only 99 cents between 2-4!) Here is Kate enjoying her delicious beverage.

…and both of us ecstatic about Sonic happy hour.

Not long after our Sonic stop, we crossed over into the Hoosier state, Indiana. Corn and basketball…how can you go wrong?

It just so happens, that one of our BFF’s hails from this lovely state. He doesn’t live there now, but was there visiting his family so we swung by and had some dinner with them. Here we are with our friend “Stix” aka Scott…who will be drumming for us in the not so long future…yes, that means shows, people. We hear you.

The last leg of the journey was upon us and we finally made it to Illinois. We ended up sitting in traffic outside of Chicago at 1 in the morning for about an hour, but Stix’s mom sent us off with orange slices and that kept us trekking on.

Chicago was fun and a nice change of scenery, but since this is a road trip blog, i will skip ahead to the road trip back to Nashville. You have to appreciate the randomness of “Dinosaur World” right off the highway.

We found gas for $1.98/gallon in Indiana! All of a sudden, i thought it was 2004, but alas…it was still 2008 and i took a deep sigh of relief. We celebrated the “cheap” gas with an extravagant lunch at Subway.

Well, no pictures of this, but we counted 11 dead deer on the way home. How morbid, i know. You’ve got to keep yourself entertained somehow though.

We made it back in time for the big Election day. Here’s Kate with her “I Voted” sticker. By the way, i voted too, but just absentee-ly…so i didn’t get a sticker. Bummer.